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vBulletin 3 was the gold standard and phpBB the second best. StackOverflow has such a nice UI and UX. The UI is nice in Discourse too, but its UX needs more wo

by frik 9y ago

vBulletin 3 was the gold standard and phpBB the second best. StackOverflow has such a nice UI and UX. The UI is nice in Discourse too, but its UX needs more work. Bigger forums are hard to follow, infinite scroll comes with its own problems. The themes waste too much screen space.

sbierwagen 9y ago
Recently I've spent a certain amount of time on forums trying to troubleshoot a problem on an older car, and I'm having trouble agreeing with the statement that vBulletin was any kind of gold standard. There's just so much... junk. Huge post signatures, user badges, post counts, other post metadata... It's remarkably hard to skim a thread for relevant information.
- richardwhiuk 9y ago
  All of that stuff (post counts / signatures / badges) was part of trying to encourage it to be a community.
  - ahartman00 9y ago
    Can't figure out why you are being downvoted. Post counts: a metric for how long they have been here, also an attempt to let new members know if this person knows what they are talking about. Yes, post count is a poor metric for level of knowledge, but measuring level of knowledge is not an easy problem(see controversy over IQ tests). Displaying upvotes could be better, but see reddit where people post the same dumb jokes to farm karma, or steal jokes from other subs. Signatures: People like to express themselves. I'm not a fan of this one either, but hey. It can be useful when you see someone say something intelligent/helpful/etc, and their signature has a list of threads they started. You might find those threads filled with useful info. Badges: This encourages desirable behavior. It can also help identify those who have a high level of knowledge. I would add avatars: Have you every heard someone say they can remember faces, but not names? This is an attempt to help members identify each other. Edit: post metadata: seeing the number of upvotes on a post gives you an idea on whether it is true or not.
    - CM30 9y ago
      Yeah, 100% this. For signatures, it's also (in a lot of cases) because people see the signature backlink as a 'reward' for using the community. Like "if I post content on a regular basis, you'll let me link back to my own site/social media presence in my signature". This itself causes some issues (like with spammers joining simply for the 'SEO' benefits), but it's enough of a pattern that changing it will often kill a forum dead, especially in the webmaster/tech/marketing field. Other things that encourage members (but that are often seen as clutter) include reputation systems (like the green bars vBulletin had), forum cash (points given for posts and other actions), fictional shop items (purchased with said forum cash), etc. Again, a lot of people on these forums rather like said systems and often find them useful, even if to an outsider that might be seen as overwhelming.
- ihartley 9y ago
  A lot of that comes down to the quality and composition of the community you're looking at. The site admins have a lot of switch and levers to adjust the look and feel of a default vBulletin or phpBB install, and most communities' forums tend to end up having a similar aesthetic to the cars owned by the user base; anywhere from super bling'd out to subdued professionalism. The informational content seems to follow similar lines: some forums are populated by people who need hand holding through every step of an oil change, and others have more seasoned shade tree mechanics that just need some tips on how to do something without access to the factory tools.

by frik 9y ago

sbierwagen 9y ago

Recently I've spent a certain amount of time on forums trying to troubleshoot a problem on an older car, and I'm having trouble agreeing with the statement that vBulletin was any kind of gold standard. There's just so much... junk. Huge post signatures, user badges, post counts, other post metadata... It's remarkably hard to skim a thread for relevant information.

richardwhiuk 9y ago
All of that stuff (post counts / signatures / badges) was part of trying to encourage it to be a community.
- ahartman00 9y ago
  Can't figure out why you are being downvoted. Post counts: a metric for how long they have been here, also an attempt to let new members know if this person knows what they are talking about. Yes, post count is a poor metric for level of knowledge, but measuring level of knowledge is not an easy problem(see controversy over IQ tests). Displaying upvotes could be better, but see reddit where people post the same dumb jokes to farm karma, or steal jokes from other subs. Signatures: People like to express themselves. I'm not a fan of this one either, but hey. It can be useful when you see someone say something intelligent/helpful/etc, and their signature has a list of threads they started. You might find those threads filled with useful info. Badges: This encourages desirable behavior. It can also help identify those who have a high level of knowledge. I would add avatars: Have you every heard someone say they can remember faces, but not names? This is an attempt to help members identify each other. Edit: post metadata: seeing the number of upvotes on a post gives you an idea on whether it is true or not.
  - CM30 9y ago
    Yeah, 100% this. For signatures, it's also (in a lot of cases) because people see the signature backlink as a 'reward' for using the community. Like "if I post content on a regular basis, you'll let me link back to my own site/social media presence in my signature". This itself causes some issues (like with spammers joining simply for the 'SEO' benefits), but it's enough of a pattern that changing it will often kill a forum dead, especially in the webmaster/tech/marketing field. Other things that encourage members (but that are often seen as clutter) include reputation systems (like the green bars vBulletin had), forum cash (points given for posts and other actions), fictional shop items (purchased with said forum cash), etc. Again, a lot of people on these forums rather like said systems and often find them useful, even if to an outsider that might be seen as overwhelming.
ihartley 9y ago
A lot of that comes down to the quality and composition of the community you're looking at. The site admins have a lot of switch and levers to adjust the look and feel of a default vBulletin or phpBB install, and most communities' forums tend to end up having a similar aesthetic to the cars owned by the user base; anywhere from super bling'd out to subdued professionalism. The informational content seems to follow similar lines: some forums are populated by people who need hand holding through every step of an oil change, and others have more seasoned shade tree mechanics that just need some tips on how to do something without access to the factory tools.